Early '60s LASER Experience?

[Eidetic]

I've recently been looking into the history of commercial lasers, and am interested in talking with anyone who built or used them anytime during the Kennedy years. I'm specifically interested any information about pulsed ruby lasers made by Hughes, Raytheon or Trion Instruments. Thanks a bunch!

[frothychimp]

Oooo, that would be a tough order to fill considering that the minimum operator age at any of those companies would be on the order of 24 (masters degree) and figuring the latest for the Kennedy administration is 1963 would make the person you would talk to at least 70.

What is it specifically you are looking for?

[Eidetic]

My father's still very active at 87, after barnstorming in the '30s, Rabaul & Korea in the '40s, and 6 kids in the '60s! But really i'm looking for stories for an article I'm writing about the journey of the device from one in a lab in Malibu to a commercial product.

I'm hoping to rustle up some comments about those very exciting and early days from someone who still has enough of that sparckle in their eyes over lasers (bad visual, I know) that they'd see this thread here in 2009. Maybe scare up comments about old hardware, pictures of old laser stuf, or the oldest laser you've ever seen. The 50th anniversary of the first one is next spring.

[frothychimp]

I think your father would be the exception to the rule but stranger things have happened. Have you contacted the manufacturers directly? Companies of those size often have their own employees that do nothing but corporate history. Might be worth a try.

[Eidetic]

The corporate story goes only so far, but stories about the lasers themselves are never there. I mean stories from users of lasers, problems with them, interesting accidents that were firsts. For example, the first reported use of a laser on a human was a photocoagulator in December of '61. You really think THAT was the first time a laser pulse hit a human? 8^0........8^)

Imagine using a pulsed ruby laser without having a He-Ne to align everything, or a meter to measure its energy! Visible CW lasers became commercially available in September of '62.

[Laserman532]

Hey Bob...Pat Bishoff here - long time no talk to you- I would bet that you could talk to John Simsick at TSTC in Waco or Johnny Jones who runs a consulting company called laser professionals with Pat Harris My old roomate from those days. They were all around in those days - Simsick is in waco still, he will die there and Jones is in hawaii he travels a lot.

you can reach jones here http://www.laser-professionals.com/home.php

tell the boys...OLDER THAN ME...I said hey!

[Eidetic]

Right on Pat, I'll contact them both. Jeez, it HAS been a few years since I was even last here!

[daedal]

I guess this might be along the lines of what you're looking for?



--DDL

[ledfx]

Not direct help, but some interesting early footage of lasers:

http://www.britishpathe.com/results.php?search=laser

Adam

[Eidetic]

Those are great! The second one shows a Spectra-Physics Model 112 He-Ne laaser used to make the hologram, sold from the middle of 1963 and throughout the rest of the decade. My guess is that those films were made in about '65. Very mod.